Removal firm didn't move all our stuff

What a coincidence. New people moving in here today were saying that their removal company just missed a whole room full of stuff.

Yes,*4allwe know*, if we would all do Swedish Death Cleaning (Marie Kondo, who?) before we move our homes, a lot of packing, time, truck issues, insufficient manpower, misunderstandings, MORE time and expense could be avoided.

But we all think our stuff is so precious (even tho your own family does not want it - it’s junk to them!) you drag it along. Then you never unpack half of it. Into the dumpster or goodwill. You paid extra for this.

Life so much breezier without the clutter. Streamlining your footprint so much healthier.
I’m guilty myself… 😏
USA Gundy

Most folk have a clear out before organising a mive to get rid of tge stuff they've been hoarding and no longer need. Helps reduce all the packing too. The company you used sound like a real load of "chancers". If in a trade organisation may be wirth a try through that. If not, afraid you will be struggling to get any recompense. They can turn round and say all the stuff left behind in the room is new to them, it wasn't there on day you moved. How do you prove it was? Move on, one of life's lessons.

I moved in lock down. No visits to assess, no help packing. I paid a basic fee and then bought the boxes as they couldn't be re-used. The removal men were lovely. But they did come through recommendation from a friend. They moved a few things I had said I wasn't taking and took a sette I didn't want round to my son's house. Very reasonable price and very efficient. It was a bit odd because we stayed out of the way whilst they were in and out of the house. Strange times.

We moved 18 months ago from a 3 bed semi with (very full garage). We chose a company that our son had used 4 years previously. A man came out and assessed for cost. We already had our dining room full of packed boxes by this time. He quoted £450 for a large van and 2 men. On the day they arrived promptly at 9am as arranged.

Our two strapping sons were both there and got stuck in. They filled a very large trailer of our own easing The workload for The removal men.
The removal men emptied the house of all contents.
Hand over for keys is usually noon.

When the house was empty at about 11.30am the removal men headed to our new home which was only 5 minutes away and sat outside while we waited for the keys handover. Bear in mind the only reason the got finished at 11/30 was because our sons came to help, filled our trailer, and then helped to load their van. The keys were handed over to us at The new property by the agent at 12.05. Our boys helped the removal men to off load their van.
When all was done we were given the bill which was £50 higher than quoted. I objected when told this was for one hour waiting time at the new house. I said it wasn't an hour. But also the only reason they arrived early was because our lads helped them load up. He got the boss on the phone who said to me that it was our choice to help!! My son took the phone off me and attempted to talk reason. Best he got was £10 off.

The removal workers were great and Dh gave them a £20 tip each saying to me that it wasn't their fault. I thought given the help that they'd had they could have not bothered to put in the waiting time of less than 40 minutes and for which we'd been rounded up to the hour.

It is said that 'No good deed goes unpunished '. (Smiley face)

Well done TrueNan 👍

I can identify! I got 4 quotes; only one viewed beforehand. I chose a middle quote was told would be 2 vans and 3 men, one of whom slept for 2 hours in his van as was hungover from night before. They moaned constantly about how much 'stuff' i had (2 bed flat - no attic or basement, no sheds or garage). Job included driving contents to secure storage compound 4 miles away & unloading into a storage container. They stopped outside the compound & demanded extra money or they wouldn't unload. Said they'd had to shift more stuff than expected (no - 2 had had to do the work of 3!) Very upset on an already stressful day, i paid (had to drive to cash machine as they demanded cash).
Think they saw an elderly woman on her own as an easy target. So - i reported them to Trading Standards & got my money back. If we don't report such fraudsters/cowboys, they'll keep doing it to others.

suelld

Similarly to Scottiebear I also took a firm to the small claims court…won…but the firm had claimed bankruptcy, then restarted the business under another name shortly after! I never got any money and of course lost the court fees too.
Simple process…but these firms are way ahead of the game!

This was my experience with a car purchase.
Won the caim but got nothing.

We've moved 20 plus times including several overseas moves and have always had a visit to check out what we had and how long it would take to pack. Everything that was insured and a full list had to be supplied by us. The companies had to do all of the packing otherwise it wasn't insured for breakages etc. I packed clothes and books but had boxes delivered beforehand plus packing paper to line boxes and also wardrobe boxes to hang clothes in. Only had one bad experience when the final date had to be changed at short notice for various reasons and our company of choice was unavailable. The replacement company ( abroad) resulted in several complaints and the eventual loss of a few boxes of books one of which contained all the old Mother's day, Fathers day, b'day cards etc from my son dating back to when he was in infant school which caused me considerable distress.

Suelle. That's galling. The ticket company I bought tickets from had a professional looking website. Apparently I wasn't the first to sue them and bailiffs had been sent in previously. I contacted Trading Standards but was told a business had to have a certain amount of complaints against them before anything could be done. I am much more savvy now. But anyone can be caught out with these unscrupulous businesses. I do mostly pay by credit credit card if buying on line. I was so impressed with my credit card company. They didn't hesitate in reimbursing me.

The exact same thing happened to me. The removal company told me they didn't need to come out and just asked me to go through each room and tell them what was in there. I had a 4 bed semi detatched. They were recommended to me by the person buying our house, as they had used them before. The company estimated about 35 boxes but I ended up packing about 50. The removal men refused to take the other 15, they were all different sizes and they counted a small box the same as one 4 times bigger, they also refused to take our fridge or freezer and when we were in our new house, said it was too late to put our wardrobes together, so didn’t. It was horrendous. The van was also far too small for what we needed. I paid by barclaycard, i always pay this way for any large item so i have the assurance of barclaycard behind me, I complained to them, I hadn't actually wanted to pay them anything but barclaycard agreed to give us two thirds back and dealt with them on our behalf.

Similarly to Scottiebear I also took a firm to the small claims court…won…but the firm had claimed bankruptcy, then restarted the business under another name shortly after! I never got any money and of course lost the court fees too.
Simple process…but these firms are way ahead of the game!

Unless you dealt with a limited company, OP, you may have difficulty knowing who to sue.

I am sorry you have had such an unpleasant experience - moving is stressful enough to start with! Have you paid in full in advance?

It is not a problem that has arisen on any of my moves. Last time was nearly 3 years ago and they could not have been more helpful. They even worked hard to put my super king size bed on to raisers which involved constructing a pile of bricks under the centre of the bed.

Every time I have used a local firm, and; looked at reviews. I did all the packing with the help of my family.

When I was looking for quotes this last time, there were companies who wanted to quote sight unseen. I avoided those - they were cheaper, but I could not see how they could make a sensible quote without seeing the place.

I hope very much that you will soon settle in your new home.

I used small claims court few years back to claim back cost of expensive concert tickets. Very easy to do and didn't cost much. I was awarded full cost of tickets plus cost involved in claim. Didn't have to physically attend anywhere. Bailiffs were actually sent to the company concerned as they didn't pay. But office workers claimed everything in office was rented, so bailiffs couldn't take anything. However, I'd paid for tickets with credit card, so card company reimbursed me the entire amount. Bit off subject here, but thought small claims experience might be of interest to some.

Last time we moved, just down the road & round the corner, our removal men stopped working at 4.15pm & said they couldn't move any more stuff. The house wasn't clear. The people moving into our house were renting so weren't moving in straight away. I had to hand the keys in, keeping one back. The next day, all the rest of our stuff was dumped outside in the pouring rain. They refused to let us have a tip outside the house but we found later, they had used our tip to put the kitchen cabinets in from our old house. The house was on a private road so the skip was at the top in a space used for carparking. The firm used was a member of the removal association & was used by members of the police to move.

We've used 3 BAR firms - all and I repeat All damaged our furniture. A neighbour used another BAR firm and in the end had to take legal action for the amount of damaged items- we had to use an arbitrator. The removal men deliberately took very slow moves as they were upset that a team of 3 was being used and not the usual 4, their way of telling their employers that they would not work harder. Arrival was promised at 8am but they arrived at nearly 9am. Due to the slow actions, we had to pay for another day for the men to unload - less than 3 miles away from the old house. From past experience, trade membership does not mean anything. Just another excuse to charge you extra for the damage that happens. When we moved from one county to another and had to put stuff in storage and then 7 months later had to move it again to another county, items went missing. How do we know which firm caused the damage? We currently have 4 quotes for our next move - the lowest is just below £1400 and the most expensive is over £3600. Not sure why so different in price. Either way, I'm expecting damage . The only time we did not have damage was when we used a team of 2 men who were so tidy and polite and certainly NOT Bar members.

Thanks for all the responses, especially the ones that aren't shutting the door after the horse has bolted.
Mid range - middle of the range of quotes.
Paid in full (I understand this is normal practice for payment to be made before the vehicle leaves the original address)
Not being able to find any reviews of the company online should have been a red light, I agree.
I found the company through a comparison type site, where you input your details and invite companies to quote.
Small claims to recover the costs of shipping the balance seems to be the way to go

That is bad business when we moved six weeks ago, we had packers and movers. But the boss came out to do an assessment first. I hope you have put in a strong complaint about their shoddy work. Bet they have had their money.

You are not being unreasonable. We had a similar sort of problem with a reputable gardening business. Written quote for work in garden. They dug it up and then announced there was more soil to get rid off than they had thought. We had no choice but to pay the extra. A lesson to everyone I guess that even when we get a written quote to make sure certain specific words are contained in quote, such as to remove 'all necessary' soil or to pack and remove 'all' contents. I know there's a difference between a quote and an estimate. Think an estimate is just that, but a quote is a legally binding contract. Hope you get it sorted. Moving is stressful enough with extra hassle.

I had this problem a few years ago I was moving and the guy who advertised on gumtree as a removal company asked what I was moving so I told him and what I needed he and a guy turned up and packed up the truck as they were nearly done i said you haven’t finished stuff in the other room and he said we will come back for it. When they got to other house they dropped my stuff one of daughter inlaw was watching them and then she said they have left. I tried to ring them but no response and after wards lots of people were complaining about them so when I move soon I will be getting a better company that will take all my stuff and I paying the extra won’t fall for that trick again

My last move was quite some time ago and the man came out to visit before giving a quote, I can recall him asking about the loft/garage too...not a big firm but he was highly recommend and all went smoothly.

Ah, well I’m glad I can put a bit of a different spin on it.
Exactly the same thing happened to us and we got a man with a van to remove the remainder.
In our case, the removal men were all extremely nice and helpful and the quote was reasonable. We only moved in 2018 and our quote was comparable to yours, but with no packing. So I believe your quote was very reasonable, comparing 2018 prices with 2023.
Our removal company were extremely apologetic, they simply didn’t think we had so much stuff! Even though they’d come and looked round to quote. I think we had quite a lot of stuff in the garden too and he hadn’t calculated very well.
It was an honest error and yes, possibly they should have put things right but we were personally happy to pay for a small van to remove the extra left behind. The men had been very pleasant throughout, making the day of moving far less stressful.
As the quote was reasonable, we were happy to pay extra for a man with a van. Not worth arguing over.
But only you can decide, depending on how the men were, depending on the reasonableness of the quote compared with others etc.
Good luck in your new home.

When we moved they came round to look 1st then quoted us, we were not allowed to help them either they said thats because if we were to break something we could, later blame them, so it was for insurance purposes, sounds like your company were not very professional or any good

Always best to use a member of BAR trade association. I would definitely be taking this up with the company